Valentine's mixed media heart

I was at the thrift store and they had a bunch of these decorative hearts that are meant to be used for wall decorations or fake flowers or some such. The sides taper to a point so things can be put inside. I thought I would take them apart and use the hearts for some mixed media pieces.


The finished samples below are using this one. I used nail polish remover to remove the pink paint.

I also have one like this. I am using it to show how I disassembled the containers.

 I used metal snips to cut the sides, trying to get to the tip on each side.

Then I bent it back and forth so the front section and the back section would separate. I used pliers to grab the edge that I had just cut and moved the metal back and forth to pop the welding attachment to the face piece.  On the gold tones ones, I was just able to kind of tug and roll the metal at the welding spot and it would come unattached. Of course, there are about five welding spots on both sides, so after a while my arms would get tired and I would need to take a break.  I plan on bringing these for the Colorado Mixed Media February meeting for us to use in a project, so I had five gold boxes to break apart. The white one did not have any rough edges after removing the sides. The gold ones had a small lip which I hammered down to the back side.

I had picked up some Vintag Patina over Christmas, so I thought I'd try it out.

 

 The bottle says to apply with a brush, but I don't think these are water soluble and did not want to ruin a brush. I used cotton disposable makeup swaps and blotted the ink on.  I applied the green, then did a blotchy blue application.

 I then took this sanding block and sanded some of the finish off to give it a distressed look.

I added some lace, a piece of decorative paper on mat board, a chipboard letter "L", and stenciled "ove".

 On the next one, I used alcohol inks.

I used too much on the first attempt and the ink was thick and gunky looking.

I used rubbing alcohol to remove most of the ink, and did a lighter application. I added some do-dads and plan to add a bit more as well.